History on the Road TIMBERLINE LODGE, MOUNT HOOD, OREGON by James G
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History On The Road TIMBERLINE LODGE, MOUNT HOOD, OREGON By James G. Lewis ocated on the touches on issues that foreshadowed what with recreational pursuits. Mount Hood the U.S. Forest Service would later confront Establishment of the recreation area L National Forest on a national level. For most visitors, brought to the fore the debate among a short drive from Port- though, this National Historic Landmark locals and Forest Service employees about land, Oregon, Timber- is simply a great place to have some fun all the definition of “recreational use” on a line Lodge is a resort year round. national forest. The debate reflected one destination and gate- In 1925, the 173-mile-long Loop Road, that had been going on in other parts of way to modern recre- which starts in Portland and circles the country and other regions of the Forest ational opportunities Mount Hood itself, opened up Mount Service. In Colorado, recreation engineer ranging from basic hiking to snowboard- Hood National Forest to Portland resi- Arthur Carhart had persuaded the Forest ing. Conceived in the 1930s as a public dents seeking recreational opportunities Service in 1920 to set aside the land around works relief project to aid unemployed such as hiking and skiing. The year after Trappers Lake on the White River National Oregonians during the Great Depression, the road opened, the federal government Forest as wilderness. Aldo Leopold had Timberline is also a living museum that set aside 83,751 acres of the national for- done the same in 1924 on the Gila National houses the best of the handicraft move- est as a public recreation area and in Forest in Arizona. In Oregon, would recre- ment and features original furniture, fix- doing so declared that economic activi- ation mean solitary hiking, or winter sports tures, and furnishings. Its early history ties would not be allowed to interfere carnivals with thousands of participants? U.S. FOREST SERVICE PHOTO 361325 Timberline Lodge in Oregon, around the time it opened in 1938 and before the ski lift was built. A snow-capped Mt. Hood provides a scenic backdrop behind the lodge. Before the lift was built, skiers skied to the road below and caught a ride back up by car. FOREST HISTORY TODAY | SPRING/FALL 2009 59 “A Map of Territory around Timber Line Lodge,” by Littleton Dryden, published in Builders of Timberline Lodge, Works Progress Administration, Portland, Oregon, 1937. Items like the toboggan run and ski jump were never constructed. Mount Hood’s immediate popularity with at this location. But conflict foreshadowed in the mid 1930s, discussion turned to the locals and seasonal tourists who were clam- the national debate over wilderness that building’s design. As Sarah Baker Munro oring for recreational facilities and emerged after World War II. documents in her new book, Timberline overnight lodging soon ended the debate Once the site for a lodge was selected Lodge: The History, Art, and Craft of an 60 FOREST HISTORY TODAY | SPRING/FALL 2009 TEXTILE AND POST PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR WILLIAMS CHAIR PHOTO COURTESY OF GERALD W. Examples of the textiles, artwork, and furniture made for Timberline Lodge: the curtain features a local plant, a wooden newel post was carved in the shape of a native bird, and the chair is made of wood, iron, and rawhide. American Icon, an early proposal for a large, Cascadian. He led a team of Forest Service WORK BEGINS blocky structure with a tram and cable- architects, each handling a different aspect Hopkins approved funding that December way to the summit of Mount Hood gave of the building, and supervised the cre- for “a year-round recreational center at Forest Service leaders and the secretary of ation of detailed drawings as well as con- Timber Line on Mount Hood, including Agriculture pause. They realized they struction. All that remained to be decided housing accommodations, roads, trails, were dealing with “one of the great land- in 1935 was who would fund it—and who landscaping, parking spaces, swimming marks of the continent.”1 would operate it. tanks, toboggan and ski runs, ski jumps, Design efforts quickly moved toward With the Great Depression in full tennis courts, water system, open amphi- a hotel integrated into the mountain envi- swing and money tight, it was agreed theater, barns, shelters, and a hotel of ronment. After initial plans had to be aban- that the Forest Service would develop stone and wood.” When construction doned because of high per-room costs, in and landscape the roads and grounds costs soared, however, items like the December 1935 the Forest Service hired around the proposed hotel, and the hotel toboggan runs, ski jump, ice-skating rink, Gilbert Stanley Underwood as the consult- construction would be handled by and tennis courts were never constructed. ing architect. Underwood had apprenticed another agency. Promoters turned to the After much debate about the appropriate- in Arts and Crafts architecture, which fea- federal government’s newly created ness of a swimming pool in a recreation tured the use of Native designs and natu- Works Progress Administration (WPA) area, one was built in the 1950s.4 Though ral materials. Underwood’s work for the for funding. Since the goal of WPA was no funding had been provided for a ski lift, National Park Service on the Zion and to provide jobs for the greatest possible Forest Service Chief Ferdinand Silcox over- Bryce Canyon lodges in Utah and the number of workers, the desire to build ruled his subordinates’ protests about its Ahwahnee Lodge in Yosemite held great by hand made Timberline Lodge an ideal appropriateness in a “wilderness” area and appeal for Timberline’s boosters. In fact, project. To secure the necessary loans, ordered it built in fall 1938. his designs for national park lodges the Forest Service joined with the local The Magic Mile chairlift was the sec- “became the standard for architecture on booster organization, Mount Hood ond one ever built for passengers (the first public lands.”2 Development Association, to pledge the was at Sun Valley, Idaho) and was for For Timberline Lodge, Underwood required portion of funds. In September many years the longest chairlift in the combined Rustic style with the aesthetics 1935, Oregon’s WPA director, Emerson world. Passengers rode up the mountain of the Arts and Crafts movement into an J. Griffith, submitted an application to to a stone-and-wood warming hut, which architectural style he called “environmen- Harry Hopkins, the federal WPA admin- was named for Silcox, who died unex- tal.” Promoters, wanting to avoid the istrator, for $246,893 to build a hotel. pectedly shortly before its opening in terms “rustic” and “environmental,” (Three more applications for funds 1939. After falling into disuse and disre- adopted “Cascadian” to suggest the lodge’s would eventually be filed, and the final pair after 1962, when a new lift was built, setting in the Cascade Mountain range and cost of the building, road improvements, the Silcox Hut was abandoned. The non- its echo of the shape of the mountain and landscaping would total nearly $1 profit group Friends of Silcox Hut reno- peak behind it.3 Working from Under- million.) Eager to secure funding, Griffith vated it in the late 1980s and transformed wood’s general designs, the detail work did not tell Hopkins that working draw- it into a popular overnight stay for groups fell to William I. “Tim” Turner, a Forest ings had yet to be completed for the of up to twenty-four. Like Timberline Service architect who had coined the term building. Lodge, Silcox Hut is now on the National FOREST HISTORY TODAY | SPRING/FALL 2009 61 Register of Historic Places. Project, which ran from 1935 to 1943 and carved linoleum panels; and Virginia Work on the lodge began in earnest on was part of the WPA. Darcé, who did a glass mural for the Blue June 13, 1936, even though the plans were Oregon’s pioneer heritage provided a Ox Bar of Paul Bunyan, a popular subject not actually approved until July. The year- main theme for the Timberline Lodge fur- in WPA art in the Northwest and a natu- round resort was built to accommodate nishings. The connection was natural. Just ral choice for Timberline.8 250 overnight guests and 200 diners at one down from the lodge are Barlow Road, Crafts for Timberline Lodge included time. “The structure as designed consists the last overland segment of the Oregon ironwork, wood, and textiles. In 1976, of two wings which radiate from a cen- Trail, and perilous Laurel Hill, the most Margery Hoffman Smith said of the tral hexagonal unit some 66 feet in diam- difficult descent on the 2,200-mile trail. craftsworkers, “Carpenters became cabi- eter,” states a Forest Service document Pioneer themes were popular subject mat- net makers, blacksmiths became art metal written shortly before the lodge opened. ter in many New Deal murals and arts workers and sewing women wound up “The total overall length of the building around the country and were easily expert drapery makers.”9 The work was is roughly some 360 feet, with an average accepted by WPA officials for use in the as much about uplifting the workers and depth of 38 feet for both wings. These two lodge. Items associated with the pioneer restoring their confidence and self-esteem wings are four stories in height.”5 Later era, like ox yokes, were incorporated into as it was producing items. It had been additions and renovations have not altered light fixtures. hoped that craftsworkers would be able the main building significantly.